Neighborhood of the week: Nanaquaket is historic peninsula community in Tiverton

Sunday

Aug 17, 2014 at 9:02 AM

The relaxed atmosphere is a main draw of this quiet, leafy neighborhood off Main Road, north of Four Corners, and south of Stone Bridge.

Christine Dunn Journal Staff Writer ChristineMDunn

TIVERTON, R.I. — In Nanaquaket, sunny summer afternoons attract people who like to fish, go boating or enjoy the fresh seafood at Evelyn’s Drive-In, a neighborhood institution on Nanaquaket Pond.

The relaxed atmosphere is a main draw of this quiet, leafy neighborhood off Main Road, north of Four Corners, and south of Stone Bridge.

This peninsula community is an old one, purchased by Captain Richard Morris of Portsmouth in 1651 from the Pocassets, “who were part of the larger Wampanoag nation,” according to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission. The commission’s Tiverton survey report said that Queen Weetamoe once lived near the northern end of Nanaquaket Neck.

The nearby Weetamoo Woods were named for Weetamoe, the wife of Wamsutta, who was the son of Massasoit, a tribal leader. Wamsutta was also the brother of Metacom, also known as King Philip. Metacom became chief of the Wampanoags in 1666.

Weetamoe joined Philip in his war against the English colonists, which started in June 1675, and she drowned in the Taunton River while trying to escape the English forces after they defeated the Wampanoags in 1676.

“The Irving D. Humphrey House on Nanaquaket Neck is said to have been built on the site of the residence of Queen Weetamoe,” the commission’s report said.

“Although the Tiverton lands were within the jurisdiction of Plymouth Colony, in 1651, Wamsutta, or Alexander, and several other Wampanoag sachems, sold Nanaquaket Neck to Captain Richard Morris,” according to the report. “The land, whose southern boundary was an Indian cornfield, included about 457 acres.”

In 1737, Nanaquaket belonged to the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver, who was living in Boston when he died in 1774, according to the report. But “because he had been a Tory, in 1775 the colony confiscated his land, except for a tract in the southern part that was set off for Oliver’s heirs.” In 1782, “the neck was deeded to Colonel Israel Angell, Major Coggeshall, Jeremiah Olney and Captain William Tew in return for wartime service of Colonel Angell’s regiments.”

The report said that Andrew Oliver may have built the oldest building in Nanaquaket, Homelands, a c. 1760 house at 575 Nanaquaket Rd., which is now on the market for $3.7 million. In 1872, “the Neck had only about a half dozen houses, owned by wealthy and influential people,” it added.

The George Humphrey House at 85 Nanaquaket Rd. was built in 1840. Nanaquaket, the name of a house that later became St. James Convent, was built in 1872 at 49 Nanaquaket Rd. The property was a wedding gift given by George Humphrey to his daughter, Mary, when she married Nathaniel Church, one of the seven Church brothers; the Church family founded a large local fish-processing company in Tiverton in 1870.

Several years ago, the convent property was sold for $4.5 million to Fall River developer James Karam, who won approvals to raze the historic house and build new waterfront homes on the parcel, including a large home for his own family.

The Bridgeport Block/Manchester Seafood building, a historic (c. 1860) commercial site on the Sakonnet River waterfront, at 2139 Main Rd., is on the market for $1.75 million. According to the commission report, this property “may have been the site of Joseph Wanton’s shipyard.” Wanton was a Quaker who came to Tiverton in 1688 and established a shipbuilding business on the north end of Nanaquaket Pond. “The old Bridgeport Block was one of the first stores in town and had apartments above,” the report added.

Residential listings in the neighborhood range in price from $119,000, for a one-bedroom cottage at 19 Delano Island St., to $3.7 million for the Homelands estate, which includes 34 acres, a main house, guest house, barn and historic cemetery, according to the listing information.